A Fast Handover Scheme betweenWiFi andWiMAX Networks

Abstract

With the rapid development of wireless communication, mobile users are desirous to handover between different types of network interfaces. The IEEE 802.21 Draft Standard was proposed to integrate the Media Independent Handover (MIHs) between the wireless network interfaces, such as WiFi, WiMAX, 3GPP, and 3GPP2. It aims to provide completed handover architectures for the ubiquitous goal. However, the IEEE 802.21 Draft Standard may not hold the seamless roaming character and does not provide the security mechanism. In this paper, we propose an efficient handover mechanism between WiFi and WiMAX networks to meet the seamless roaming character by reducing the authentication processes. In addition, the proposed scheme involves security mechanisms that guarantee the handover messages to be secure.